Season of Refreshment......!

We arrived safely in the US and are so thankful to the Lord for His care for us as we travelled and for the rest He is giving us here! It doesn’t seem possible that it is over 3 weeks already since we left Lapoc but this photo of us sharing a meal and enjoying family time with our uncle and aunt and some of our cousins is evidence that we really have been transported out of our familiar and remote mountainous missionary life into a totally different country and life-style!

Please pray for the ministry team we have left behind in Lapoc during the 2 months we are away. We are hearing regular reports via Skype from our co-workers back in Lapoc and we praise the Lord that there was no loss of life in the recent typhoon that passed right over Lapoc. We did lose 2 bridges though, so our trip to Lapoc will take a lot longer now as we will have to go around the long way to get home. Please pray with us that they will rebuild these bridges quickly.

As far as our family is going, it has amazed Paul how much ‘lighter’ his body and his soul feel already as he allows himself to enjoy the refreshing rains of rest and change of pace. We all felt very groggy from jet lag for about a week, and I (Deb) immediately came down with a bad cold but I am over it now and we are all feeling re-energized and so, so thankful to the Lord for this time away that He has given us and Jubab is thoroughly enjoying meeting other young people and making new friends.

We have been enjoying sharing what the love of our lives – Jesus – is doing amongst the people groups we love in Mindanao, and also seeing what He is doing amongst His people here. One of the highlights was sharing at an AWANA group and the most amazing thing happened. A little tiny girl, about 5 years old, had some questions for us at AWANA that she wanted to ask us so she could fill out her book in the section called, “Interview a missionary.” And at the end, it said in her book, “Pray for your missionary.” So she put her book down, stood there right beside us, and in a very audible voice prayed, “Dear God, please help the missionaries teach people about Jesus and..... God, please keep them safe, Amen.” It was so precious it brought tears to our eyes. 

When you see this picture of the beautiful, clear skies the Lord has been giving us, you will have an idea of the wonderful, peaceful days we are having.

Last week we had a wonderful reunion with family – my Uncle, Aunt and cousins and their families.

This week the Lord has brought us to Amish country in Pennsylvania where we are having a family break at the moment – something unplanned, and it wasn’t on the schedule, but God worked it out for us!  

We have loved being in the country, the open fields, the beautiful farm animals, the Amish way of life of driving buggies and ploughing their fields with horses or mules and the country restaurants with the wonderful Dutch-German cooking. These little goats on this farm were enjoying showing off and were quite happy to show us their expertise in climbing and jumping.

Yesterday we were also blessed to see a wonderful production on ‘Jonah’ at a theatre called Sights and Sounds, and it was a real thrill to us and a memory we will treasure.  The picture below is outside the theatre with the Lion and the Lamb statue – how wonderful that our Saviour is both our Lion and our Lamb!!!

Our time with Grandpa is coming up next – and knowing my Grandpa and his love of story-telling, eating ice-cream, watching old videos and playing board games – this is going to be a very special time with him leading up to Christmas and to his birthday the day after Christmas. Shortly into the new year we are scheduled to speak at a missions conference and then begin our journey back home to Lapoc.

We praise God for you and for your prayers for our safety as we travel and for this time to be one of healing of our wounds and sorrows so that God can shortly take us back into the thick of the battle. 

Statistics...!

Every week, teams of evangelists, Bible teachers and church planters leave from here on their motorbikes and travel to many, many outreaches and church plants where we are evangelizing, teaching the Word and discipling and training new Bible teachers so we can continue to further our outreach amongst the Tala Andig and Higaunon peoples.

Teams like the group here in this picture (photo taken at Lantod). 

These teams are amongst God’s elite evangelists - you would have to search a long time in this world to come across many teams as dedicated as these men and as skilled in spreading the Gospel! Rain hail or shine, they leave each week as they have been doing for the past 10 years or so. Our hearts, when we see these faithful servants of our Lord Jesus.....well, the feeling we have is indescribable!!!!

2012 has been a year with many, many trials, hardships, attacks from Satan and discouragements but with this has come HUGE ADVANCEMENTS FOR THE GOSPEL!!!!!

So, let us share with you some statistics of what God has been doing through us and you and our Tala Andig and Higaunon brethren as we have all partnered together as a team this 2012. Thanks so, so much for partnering with us this year in prayer, financial support and encouragement.

* New outreaches into Sinicabog, Bayanihan, Talid-talid, Malunong, Basak, Mauswagon, Miarayon, Awang and Patpat. 

* Over 300 unsaved currently being taught evangelistic materials to bring them to faith in our Lord Jesus.

* A huge push on training new bible teachers and evangelists – there are 51 men currently being trained to teach the Word as well as 16 women.

*  21 Churches planted so far in total over the course of our ministry.

*  7 Villages currently in evangelism stage and others on the drawing board.

* Plans currently being made to send a 2 family, full time missionary team to the strategic village of Man-ay.

Grace.....!

This is Grace Tart and she is the delightful new evidence of God’s grace in Ben and Leonie’s lives!!!! (You can read more about her on Ben and Leonie’s blog – there is a link to their blog from ours.)

Leonie delayed her return to Ballina for the birth for as long as she could and still be allowed to fly on the Airlines, and Ben followed five weeks later and thankfully made it in time to be there for Grace’s arrival!

We are so grateful that three weeks later, Leonie and Ben both felt God leading them for Ben to come back here to Lapoc to finish up Jubab’s Year 8 school year. We know it is a huge personal cost for them and we just praise God for them and their willingness to serve. It has been a huge blessing to have Ben back here at this time and Jubab’s school year is almost finished.

Please pray for Ben as he endures the loneliness and the hardship of isolation and as he spends this time here away from his two beloved girls. Pray for a safe journey for him as well on his return trip to Aussie in a couple of weeks.  

They plan on returning in January for the new school year and we can’t wait to meet Grace!

Opportunities.....!

This past couple of weeks have flown by in a whirlwind of opportunities!

I (Deb) had the privilege of teaching a series from the book of 1 John to a group of 159 ladies from the churches in Anlagan, Miarayon, Lapoc, Tinaytayan, San Aquino, Colawingon, Lantod, Buyungon, Tumpagon, Cauyunan, Limondà and Ricodo.  We held our retreat at a place called Seaside Bible Camp which was several hours journey for all of us but a perfect location with cabins near the beach and a wonderful staff who looked after us and cooked for us.

It was a truly great time of fellowship, prayer, studying the Word, being together, talking late into the night, crying and laughing together.

On the last night together, we had a leadership meeting for all the women from every church who are involved in ministry:  scripture teachers, elder’s wives who serve alongside their husbands, women who lead women’s bible study groups, youth group leaders etc. I was astonished when that 53 women came to this meeting. Out of 159 ladies at the retreat, 53 are involved in ministering the Word and in leading children, youth and women’s groups!

Nayumi (wearing  yellow) was at this retreat with her cousin Richel,  and she gave a beautiful testimony and then afterwards sang a song.

It was awesome to hear her share of how Jesus has been helping her through these awful and tearful days of her early widowhood. It had only been 15 days on this day since the Lord took Dondon to heaven, but during those days she has been discovering that in the heaviest and darkest of times in our lives, that Jesus promises are true and that she can get through this time because He is with her.

In part of Nayumi’s testimony, she shared: “Dondon, who was part of me, is now gone and the pain I feel is terrible, but I know that it was Jesus’ plan to take Dondon when He did and I accept this and believe that Jesus does everything right....”

We brought Nayumi and Richel back here to Lapoc with us after the Ladies’ Retreat and we had some great opportunities to talk with Nayumi about all that these last months have held, to remember things we did together with Dondon, to pray with her and to do some fun things.

We’re missing them today as they went back this morning to Tumpagon.

Another opportunity we had this week was to spend four days with 13 of the elders and other church leaders from some of the Dulangan Higaunon churches including two of the wives. We spent many hours of this time studying the Word together and helping them to update all their resources. We did some intensive study on part of the book of Acts and also had meetings and prayer times with them. Most of them stayed here in our home with us and most meal times we had about 19 people here which we did all the cooking for.

It was a hugely busy time but very valuable and it was a privilege for us to be able to serve them, to spend time with them in the Word, to meet with them and we will be doing this quite frequently over the next several months.

Our morning today started at 3 AM when we all got off for them to start their trip home. Nayumi and Richel caught a ride with them too and the house has been strangely empty and quiet today.

My eyes were still unfocused at 3 AM and it was dark so I cut several of them off in the photo – next time we’ll try to get some better photos for you.

This exciting missionary journey of waking up every day to new things and new opportunities is a great joy and we are privileged to be walking this journey alongside you! We don’t know what tomorrow has for us but we are sure of our Lord’s grace and presence with us to the end of our days and He gives us great confidence and strength – especially when our feet start to falter!

Thank you for praying – our hearts have a particular ache in them at the moment which need your prayers because our co-workers, Josh and Belinda Moffit have decided not to return to the work here in Lapoc. They came back here on the 6^th - 8^th of October and packed up their things and said their goodbyes to the church here and to all their friends. It has been extremely hard and painful for us and to tell the truth, we cannot really explain why they left. Some of the reasons we think they left is that they maybe felt intimidated by us and also did not feel comfortable with us as team leaders. But bottom line I think is that the enemy of the Gospel is behind all this. Josh and Belinda and their family are now living in another area and looking to the Lord for a new ministry.

Don’t know if we ever told you but where we live is at the foot of a volcano and this past week, all the people living in this area were informed by the Department of Natural Resources that the volcano is apparently showing signs of becoming active. So we don’t know if a volcano eruption is going to be part of God’s plan for us or not but you could keep this in your prayers as well.

All these troubles are just more opportunities to trust our Great and Loving and Faithful God!